Tribe: Endangered Peoples Around the World

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

Appalachian legend describes a mysterious, multiethnic population of exotic, dark-skinned rogues called Melungeons who rejected the outside world and lived in the remote, rugged mountains in the farthest corner of northeast Tennessee. The allegedly unknown origins of these Melungeons are part of what drove this legend and generated myriad exotic origin theories. Though nobody self-identified as Melungeon before the 1960s, by the 1990s and#8220;Melungeonnessand#8221; had become a full-fledged cultural phenomenon, resulting in a zealous online community and annual meetings where self-identified Melungeons gathered to discuss shared genealogy and history. Although today Melungeons are commonly identified as the descendants of underclass whites, freed African Americans, and Native Americans, this ethnic identity is still largely a social construction based on local tradition, myth, and media.

In Becoming Melungeon, Melissa Schrift examines the ways in which the Melungeon ethnic identity has been socially constructed over time by various regional and national media, plays, and other forms of popular culture. Schrift explores how the social construction of this legend evolved into a fervent movement of a self-identified ethnicity in the 1990s. This illuminating and insightful work examines the shifting social constructions of race, ethnicity, and identity both in the local context of the Melungeons and more broadly in an attempt to understand the formation of ethnic groups and identity in the modern world.

Synopsis:

A celebration of 200 of the world's indigenous peoples.

Synopsis:

A celebration of 200 of the world's indigenous peoples.

In words and beautiful photographs, Tribe explores the cultures, beliefs and societal patterns of human identity and belonging. Author Piers Gibbon describes some of the last existing tribal communities and shows them as intimate groups that are part of the wider world. We see their homes, celebrations and all that makes each tribe a unique thread in the fabric of humanity.

This comprehensive book details: Life stages from birth to death

Learning, histories and how tribes interpret the world around them

Belief systems

Medicine, shamanism, prayer

Survival skills

Coming of age ceremonies

Dress and adornment

Sex, gender and relationships

Money, trade and wealth

Law and order

Leisure, sport, music and art

Outside contact now and in the past

Tribal futures

The book also corrects the notion that an aboriginal tribe is invariably cut off from the rest of the world. The author's personal interviews with the world's leading anthropologists explore the future of these tribes and examine what unmet need fuels our endless fascination with tribal societies.

Tribe is an inspiring, eye-opening and sometimes poignant exploration of some of the least known and most endangered peoples of the world.

About the Author

Melissa Schrift is an associate professor of anthropology at East Tennessee State University. She is the author of Biography of a Chairman Mao Badge: The Creation and Mass Consumption of a Personality Cult.

"Synopsis"
by Ingram,
A celebration of 200 of the world's indigenous peoples.

"Synopsis"
by Ingram,
A celebration of 200 of the world's indigenous peoples.

In words and beautiful photographs, Tribe explores the cultures, beliefs and societal patterns of human identity and belonging. Author Piers Gibbon describes some of the last existing tribal communities and shows them as intimate groups that are part of the wider world. We see their homes, celebrations and all that makes each tribe a unique thread in the fabric of humanity.

This comprehensive book details: Life stages from birth to death

Learning, histories and how tribes interpret the world around them

Belief systems

Medicine, shamanism, prayer

Survival skills

Coming of age ceremonies

Dress and adornment

Sex, gender and relationships

Money, trade and wealth

Law and order

Leisure, sport, music and art

Outside contact now and in the past

Tribal futures

The book also corrects the notion that an aboriginal tribe is invariably cut off from the rest of the world. The author's personal interviews with the world's leading anthropologists explore the future of these tribes and examine what unmet need fuels our endless fascination with tribal societies.

Tribe is an inspiring, eye-opening and sometimes poignant exploration of some of the least known and most endangered peoples of the world.

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